Critics of the link between HIV and AIDS have raised the following key criticisms of the evidence: ** no animal model exists for AIDS; it is said to be impossible to inject an animal with HIV and cause AIDS ** viruses are said to cause disease quickly or never ** antibodies are usually protective, so why is it only HIV-positive people who develop AIDS? ** many cases of AIDS without HIV are claimed to exist, casting doubt on the role of HIV in the development of AIDS ** the failure of AIDS to spread outside the high risk groups is said to cast doubt on whether it is really an infectious disease ** HIV is claimed to be present in such low levels in the blood of people who are HIV- positive that it can't possibly cause disease. Furthermore, if it is so difficult to isolate, how come it's transmissible? ** the variance in the incubation period between infection with HIV and the development of AIDS is said to cast doubt on the link between HIV and AIDS ** the accuracy of tests for HIV is questioned source...

AGAINST THE HIV-CAUSES-AIDS HYPOTHESIS: BOOKS, ARTICLES, AND OTHER RESOURCESJuly 1996 Compiled by John Lauritsensource...

Biggest-ever AIDS vaccine trial draws stinging criticism

By Steve Sternberg, USA TODAY - 1/20/2004

When the world of AIDS vaccine research erupts into controversy, as it did again last week, the source is often pent-up frustration over the snail's pace of progress and the best use of research money.

More than 20 years into the epidemic, only one vaccine has completed two large-scale clinical trials. It failed both. The latest flap centers on yet another test of that vaccine as part of a two-shot combination with another experimental vaccine. source...

Thailand rejects criticism of AIDS vaccine trial for 16,000

The researchers, including a co-discoverer of the AIDS virus, Robert Gallo, also said the U.S. government was wasting $119 million by funding the experiment. They made the allegation in a signed opinion article published in Friday's issue of the U.S. journal Science. source...

Mbeki responds to Aids criticism

SAPAThe president's office has said it would not be diverted from the real issues of combating HIV/Aids. This was in reaction to criticism after President Mbeki said in an interview that he did not know anyone who had died of Aids.

Political parties lambasted Mbeki for his statement and called for him to apologise immediately.

In a statement on Friday, Mbeki's spokesman Bheki Khumalo said the president wished to clarify the situation and put the record straight. "At the end of the interview the president agreed to being asked a personal question, which was whether he knew of anyone in his family or amongst his close associates who had died of Aids or was infected by HIV".

"It was these questions specifically about people close to him that the president answered and his negative replies do not support the broader interpretation that some media have given them."